Namibia lost its bid to overturn the international ban on trading black and white rhino horns. The decision was made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Namibia also tried to lift the ban on African savanna elephant ivory but failed. Namibia had proposed separate trades for black rhinos and southern white rhinos. Neither got enough votes, with only about 30 out of 120 supporting them. CITES rules need two-thirds majority to pass such moves. Black rhinos are critically endangered with just 6,421 left in 2023, a sharp drop since 1960. Southern white rhinos are near threatened with 15,752 alive, down 11% since last year. CITES has banned rhino horn trade since 1977, but poaching continues, with over 8,000 rhinos killed in the past decade. Poaching in Namibia hit a record high in 2022 with 87 rhinos killed, nearly double from the previous year. Namibia and other southern African nations like South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini support lifting the ban mostly because they have large stockpiles of horns. Namibia has about 6.45 tonnes of white rhino horn and 4.6 tonnes of black rhino horn. Namibia was the first country to start dehorning rhinos in 1989 to reduce poaching. This process removes horns painlessly, similar to cutting nails, but the horns grow back. This causes growing horn stockpiles. Experts warn lifting the ban could increase demand and poaching. Legal trade was one cause of rhino poaching spikes in the 1970s and 1980s. Illegal trade still thrives, with over 150 horns seized worldwide between 2021 and 2023, mostly in South Africa. Conservation groups fear risks to rhinos remain high.